Running from Forever
by Reading Addicted
Summary: Jazz has begun her new life with the Flock. Her old friend Alexander wants her to leave them, Gazzy hates her, and Fang is suspicous of her. Not to mention that Iggy will want his sight back if he discovers her secret, which only Alexander knows. Learning not to be nocturnal was hard enough. Well, it can't get much worse, right? AU-ish.
1. Chapter 1

**Reading addicted here! Yeah, new story, Dad is 3 hours away… Please review and have a lovely day! **

** '**Crack!" was the sound of his head hitting the metal floor. Usually, the Erasers were much more precise when distributing us to our assigned cages. But today, they made a mistake. The whitecoats were on edge, because six children had escaped with Jeb Batchedler. I huddled back further into the now cramped cage. They had thrown this boy, a possible threat, into my cage.

I had seen him before, silently looking around us, sometimes making eye contact with me. We had never spoken, until today that is. He began to stir a little. Suddenly his eyes flickered hesitantly flickered open, black, filled with depth that I knew I had as well. It was the knowledge that our small world was a terrible place, yet there was more outside. We didn't know what it was called, only that it was _beyond _this monstrous place.

A look of realization set in and he quickly sat up, making me squeak in terror. I curled into a ball, my tail wrapping around myself in dread. This boy was probably about to go wild, screeching and hitting me. I quaked, and waited for the heavy thuds to come.

Instead, the much larger boy grasped my chin and tilted it upwards. He attentively wiped away my terror- stricken tears. He said' It's alright, little kitty. I won't hurt you. You and I know too much of this world's pain to enact it on others.' I gasped aloud. He could talk! When the whitecoats talked it was to either yell, or give instructions to the Erasers.

He laughed a sound I was unfamiliar with. He said' what cat got your tongue? I'm guessing that you can't talk like most of us' I nodded, more than a bit baffled by this guy. 'Well, I'll do the talking for the both of us.' Our mouths both curled upwards in harmony.

'Well, I'll have to give you a name, just for right know, until you can choose for your own. I think I'll call you Kitty. Think of it as a nickname' I looked at him, examining his physical features. He looked to be about my age, about 10. He had long, tangled black hair, the same color of his eyes. His skin tone was darker than mine but not brown. It looked olive. He was quite tall.

He had startlingly crimson specks along his scalp. He saw me looking at it, and he gently rubbed it. He winced, and withdrew it quickly. His hand came back red, a color I was too familiar with. The blood must have been when the Erasers had tossed him in my cage. Why had they done that anyway?

He smiled weakly and said' I guess that's what happens when you cuss out a whitecoat. Looks like I won't be doing that again'. I decided to repay this boy. He had done something that no one else had. I felt a warm tingling in my heart, like a mother cat licking her newly born kitten so that it could breath. I decide to call it caring. I cared about this boy. I liked the name of this emotion.

I licked my hands and quickly rubbed them on his scalp, where the wound was. He looked at me as if I had gone mad. 'Kitty, why are you rubbing your spit on my head?" The answer came after a few minutes of awkward tension.

He touched his scalp to find no wound there. He gasped in astonishment, and asked' Did you do that?' He looked at me in awe. That's my secret. My saliva has properties that speed up healing by 1200%.

He was speechless for about a minute, so I thought he might be in shock. I looked at him, and he looked right back. He quickly entrapped his arms around me. I yelped frightened by this sudden movement. It wasn't menacing. He was simply holding me in his arms. I decided to do it to him a well. My willowy arms wrapped around him, and I decided to call this a hug. This wasn't too bad. I actually kind of enjoyed it, and I purred aloud in happiness.

He stroked my back tenderly. I copied his movements and something soft brushed against my fingertips. He stiffened and the soft things moved. He had 10 foot long black _wings_. He wrapped them around me, making it very warm. My head rested on his chest and it was very comfortable. Hi lifted me onto his lap. My eyes shut, drifting into the world of sleep.

Before I was out, I realized this was all new. No one had ever cared about me as this boy had. Maybe, I had made a friend.


	2. Chapter 2

**Reading Addicted here! North Korea is being reckless as usual. Does anyone know how to survive a nuclear war? Anyway, please review and have a lovely day! **

I shot out of the room faster than a caged bird when the cage door was opened. The memory, my first memory of happiness, held my secret. I ran down the hallway to the room that I had slept in earlier, only to be stopped by the door. I still couldn't open doors!

'Jazz!' said Iggy,'what happened?" I gave him a terrified mew and curled into a ball, just like in the memory. He looked confused, and then knelt, after sensing my movement. He reached out his hand, but he stopped remembering that I didn't like physical touch. He sighed and ran a hand through his persimmon colored hair.

This was typical body language for an irritated male. The horrid Whitecoats did it when a mutant was having a fit, going into a shock, or retaliating from their hits. My ears twitched and I could hear his light, airy, breaths coming from his cavernous nostrils. Without warning, he picked me up bridal style and started running with me. I didn't actually know what a bride was, but I knew the term of carrying a person in such a way.

I yelped and attempted to impale his arms with my syringe sharp claws. I struggled futilely. There was two feet of height distance and he was much stronger due to the right nutrition. My strength was in my legs and hands, used for climbing, gripping, and running.

We reached a door and he opened it to reveal Outside. It had been at least two days since I had been Outside. I gasped in shocked and stopped struggling, but Iggy held onto me tighter still. He ran even faster towards…. a cliff.

I shrieked and squeezed my eyes shut tighter than an Eraser's maw around an unruly experiment's leg. Iggy chucked and exclaimed" You might want to hold on, Jazz. You're in for a wild ride. And with that bit of advice he hurtled us off the mountain.

I screamed and was going to close my eyes when Iggy whispered gently into my ear" Look up, Jazz." I did so, for I feared of angering him. My brain went into overload. The sight was so amazing; the Endless Expanse was such a vivid color, called blue. It stretched for what seemed to be eternity, never ending, always leading Beyond. It was an infinite wonder, getting smaller and smaller by the second.

Oh yeah, we were falling, and the ground was 50 feet away! I braced my self for a sudden quick death, when Iggy's wings shot out of his shirt and started flapping. His wings were the color of sand in a desert, but without the blood that I soiled it with. We slowly rose to the other side of the chasm. We reached the other side and he set me on my feet. He did it slowly, as if he wanted to keep holding me close to his rapidly beating heart.

I knew he couldn't see me, but it was like he was looking into my very being and examining what was in my heart. He said' That was fun wasn't it?' I kicked up some dirt in response. Why does he keep asking me questions when he knows I can't answer him? He sighed and ran his long, narrow fingers through his hair a second time.

His sightless eyes bore an intensity that made me take a step away from him, and right over the cliff.

**Heheh Cliffhanger! I'll be updating more often for the next week or so, because it's SPRING BREAK! Call your parents and tell them you love them, and have a lovely day!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Reading Addicted here! Yes, I'm sorry I didn't update. I've been too worried, we're doing our standardized testing next week, my grandfather has a month to live, AND I've had writers block. It happens to everyone. Have a lovely day!**

I shrieked as I felt gravity take its hold on my light body. The air whistled past my ears. Blood pounded in my ear, beating like the fists banging on a table. Vaguely, I heard Iggy call my name, heard him dive down to try and reach me, knew he would be too late. For the third time in this eventful week, I prepared my self for death yet again.

Bam! I hit something long and sinewy. 'Oof" a deep voice grunted. Wait, I knew that voice. It was Fang! I looked up to see Fang with a terrifying expression. He must have been flying over the cliff and somehow caught me. Was he spying on me and Iggy?

He flew me up to the side of the canyon Iggy was on. He unceremoniously dumped me on to the rocky ground. Iggy said' Fang, thank the heavens you were there". Iggy picked me up bridal style and I curled up into him. He flew me over the ravine, his wings beating in an erratic melody. You may be asking, what was he so stressed about? Apparently it was me. Why he would he worried about me?

I was just a useless cat hybrid. I couldn't speak, I couldn't do anything useful, and I couldn't even open doors! Why would anyone care about me? Yet, this boy did. We reached the other side, and he shifted in me in his arms so he could open the door. I clung to him, and we walked until we came back to the room that I had slept in. He opened this door and walked in and set me down on the unmade bed. I quickly curled up, facing away from him. I didn't want to look at the pity that I knew would be in his sightless eyes.

He sat down on the bed a few inches next to my still form. He touched the small of my back and I visibly flinched. He stopped and looked at me, guilt flaring in his eyes. He got up and started to leave the room. No! I didn't want him to leave. With him I felt safe, like I did with Alexander. So before I knew what came out of my mouth, said my first word, 'Ig!' It was like two sounds just simultaneously, joined up and became another, better sound.

He froze and looked at me. I covered my mouth with my small hand, afraid I had done something wrong. He suddenly embraced me, whispering "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." over and over again. He touched the small of my back and pulled me onto his lap. I recalled the first hug I had ever received from Alexander, and this was shockingly similar.

Was this all right? Was I betraying my favorite memory by repeating it with another boy who supposedly cared me? I got the answer as I started to fall asleep, like last time. The last thing I heard before I fell into the void of blackness was 'Thank you".


	4. Chapter 4

**Reading Addicted here! Does anyone know what the word impendium means? If so, please PM me. I don't own the Maximum Ride series or a piece of Mars. Have a lovely day!**

My first feeling of consciousness was _warmth_. It was all over my body, and I could detect _softness_ under my body. I whimpered in fear, that this was all a trap. Then I remembered where I was.

My eyes opened to find themselves on the familiar bed I was lying down and something rectangular had been placed on top of me. I twisted around to see Iggy on the floor, sleeping on his stomach. One arm was curled over his head, and his long, speckled wings were stretched out from his shoulder blades. He looked so vulnerable just lying there. He also looked pretty cute, just between me and you.

The room was dark, but that wasn't a problem for me. Remember I have night vision. I crawled off of the bed and said'Ig." He turned his head towards me as a response. Talking felt easy now, well at least one word. The word I knew wasn't much, just a diminutive of the name Iggy.

I poked him in the shoulder, seeing if he was awake. There wasn't a response. Honestly, I wanted to see hat his wings felt like. I had felt Alexander's plenty of times. Would Iggy's feel the same? I reached for a feather near the edge.

Turns out he wasn't that deep a sleeper after all. His wing flapped, probably due to him being startled. He sat up and said" Why were you feeling my wings?" a bit angrily. I gave him my best" you do know I can't talk, right face". I have several different versions.

Then I remembered that he couldn't see. So I simply said' Ig." He was by my side in a flash. I gave him a hug, simply because I wanted to. I couldn't name this feeling, but it felt like my heart was going to pound out of my chest. I breathed deeply memorizing his scent. He smelled like bacon.

I wanted to hug this guy all the time. He wrapped his arms around me like last night. He whispered in my ear" Jazz, I think I like you'. What did like mean? I decided to ignore his declaration of a weird word, and I pureed in pleasure. He squeezed me and sighed in what sounded like contentness. The next thing I knew the door was flung open and the littlest member of the Flock was in the room saying" Did I interrupt something?"

**Don't forget to review!**


	5. Chapter 5

"No, nothing at all!" sputtered Iggy. He stood up, brushing his hands against his pants although they were rather clean. He was really red in the face, or as Angel had told it earlier, embarrassed. Angel extended her hand towards me, and I confusedly took it. She tugged on it, pulling me up. I stumbled a little, right into Iggy. He quickly steadied me, his hands lingering on my shoulders.

Angel smiled at me, as if she knew some little thing that I didn't. This left me rather baffled. Did I do something wrong? "You didn't do anything wrong. It's just nine' o clock at night and Max wants her room back." The mind reader took me by the hand and we walked out of the room. "You need to know your way around the house since you'll be staying. I'm glad you'll be staying. That means I can have a new friend." She smiled and guided me to the right.

"This house is shaped like an "E". There are four bedrooms and three bathrooms. You just came out of Max's bedroom. Next to it is her bathroom. At the edge of the hallway are Nudge and my bedroom. Our bathroom is on the other side of the hallway. You'll share with us, 'kay?" We stopped at the end; Angel seemed to peer around the corner. My tail swung against the floor anxiously like a mop cleaning up blood. She gave a small sigh of relief, and gave a gentle squeeze to my hand.

We went to the left, and came across another corridor. "This is the boy's hallway. Gazzy and Iggy's room is the first one on the left. Fang's is on the right. Don't enter his room without permission. Their bathroom is on the opposite of Fang's room and Jeb's old office is next to that."

We walked forward a little more until we came to the last hallway. "The kitchen is on the right. The dining room is on the left. The family room is the last door on the right. The door parallel to us leads outdoors. Right now it's dark, so I wouldn't recommend going outside, Jazz." We stopped as we heard footsteps. Angel released my hand and we both spun around to see Gazzy.

"Angel, you need to get to bed. It's late." He seemed to notice me and he scowled. At least he didn't his prejudice. He grabbed Angel's hand and they seemed to have a conversation with their eyes. But then again, Angel could read minds so it wouldn't be that surprising if she could project her thoughts as well.

Gazzy sighed and ran his squared off fingers through his blonde hair. "I'm sorry for being mean to you. Truce?" he stretched out his hand, looking rather crossly, and Angel looked at me expectantly. What was that word that Angle had kept saying? "'Kay" I said a bit croakily, a bit unsure of my voice. I extended my hand and shook his bigger hand. I wrapped my hand around it and shook it a couple of times.

He sputters out "I thought you couldn't talk?!" He blinked in surprise, and his look of shock was replaced by that of anger, and then, just maybe, guilt. I smiled at him smugly, like when the whitecoats found you after you had tried to hide. I may know only two words, have grown up in a lab, not how to open doors, but I wasn't stupid. You really shouldn't make assumptions about people. Trust me on that one. It almost got me killed.

"I have to go to bed now, Jazz. I'll see you tomorrow." Angel called back as she went towards her-our- bedroom with her older brother. It was a little ironic. They were both younger than me, yet both were taller than me. Stupid whitecoats. Now that those two were gone, I could get some food.

Walking to the kitchen, I was glad there was no door leading into it. I was wondering if there was any bacon. When I saw _him_, peering into a box shaped contraption, browsing different odd foods. It must be what the whitecoats called a refrigerator, when they were talking about break rooms. What would you break in a break room? Whitecoats generally broke your bones operating tables or active-engagement experiments, as they called them.

Alexander immediately tensed on instinct as he heard me stopping to stare at him. He turned his body cautiously to face mine. He smiled when he saw me. It wasn't those strained smiles that the novice whitecoats gave to each other when they realized they screwed something up, or one of those sadistic smiles that the Erasers gave to each other as malicious intents glittered in their eyes like a light bulb.

It was the smile he gave when he first met me, about 4 years ago. It reached to his dark his eyes making him less intimidating. He slowly started walking towards me, his arms staying by his sides. I knew, even after a year apart, Alexander would never intentionally hurt me. Then why was I scared out of my wits? Even if he wouldn't intentionally hurt me, he left me behind at The School and that was something I didn't know how to let go.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N Reading Addicted here! You people all want action, but I'm not sure how to incorporate that in. So, it just popped into my head, why not explain why Alexander got away from the School but not Jazz. To be clear, this is a flash-back chapter. FLASBACK CHAPTER!**

"Kitty, today's the day. We're busting out of here." He laid that one on me when we were getting back from our morning urination. The whitecoats let us use the restroom once in the morning and once at night. Then we had our meal, which consisted of a pitiful bowl full of "high-protein" slop. Finally we had our water, given to us in the ever wonderful IV. Finally, to complete our morning ritual, the doctors from Hell would cart half of us away to come back full of puncture marks and chemical and burns. If you came back at all.

I bared my fangs at the idea. This was a sudden move on his part, but a good one none the less. The seemingly omnipotent Director had ordered budget cuts, which meant some of us would die. Alexander could get us out of here in time. He read my expression and grinned. His big hand crept between the bars of our cages like a spider. Out of habit I stuck my hand through mine. We slapped them together and shook on it. It was what we did to signify our friendship. Our bond was stronger than these wretched walls!

He released me and started explaining the plan to me. In a whisper he revealed "When the white coats come for us, I'll tackle them, slip them, and you grab their key cards. Then we'll get to the courtyard and I'll fly us out of here to Beyond. Sound good?" I nodded like the devoted, little cat I was. If you're wondering what he meant by slip, that's his special ability. He can send people to sleep as long as he could touch them.

My ears twitched as I heard the door slam open. Looks like the plan was starting now, much to my anticipation. The fur on my tail was bristling not too surprisingly. The whitecoats would finally get a bit of our suffering. Today there were three whitecoats. I recognized the two older males, but the female was new. Her square said she was Dr. Anderson. You could practically see her quaking in her coat. What did she think the job description was?

Everybody went a little nuts as usual. The other hybrids were screeching as usual. Soon in became the morning wake-up call for those of us who were really drowsy. The howler monkey hybrid did a really good job of blasting my eardrums. To be fair, I did have sand cat ears and he was loud. And we were both afraid.

Sometimes I wondered if they thought like I did. The others would just sit there, drool running off their chins, flinching at the sound of everything. The animal in them seemed to override the human genes. I wasn't like that anymore. Ever since I met Alexander, I learned of my situation. Now I could think, I could dream about life outside a laboratory, I could hope for something called a home. I still wasn't very good at it though.

The oldest whitecoat banged his clipboard against an empty cage. "Shut up; you're giving me a migraine." Soon enough, the shrill cries of terror quelled to silence. He turned to the others and gave instructions. "We have to retire some of the obsolete ones today. Numbers 299-499 are to be sent to the field. Then we will dissect their corpses, and then they will be disposed of." Alexander looked at me in alarm. We weren't expecting them to kill us today! His number was 408.

The whitecoats split up with the males going away from us and the female approaching Alexander's cage. She peered into his cage. What did she see? She looked scared. What did she have to be scared of? She knelt down and started unlocking his cage, her hand trembling. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her down. "Do you think I don't understand?" Alexander's muscles tensed. He looked at the whitecoat with an expression that terrified even me. His dark eyes practically glowed with the need for revenge and his long, black hair seemed to turn into snakes if you looked at it form an angle.

She was about to shriek when she fainted. I reached my hand and turned the keys the rest of the way. Alexander burst out of the cage as if were on fire. Unfortunately, it made a loud echoing sound. "What do you think your doing" went the idiot whitecoats.

"Payback" he simply put before giving them both his middle fingers. He leapt over the cages much to my astonishment and unfurled his 13-foot onyx wingspan. He grabbed the two's foreheads and soon enough they entered the realm of nightmares. That's the thing about his gift. He slips them his memories and they view them while they sleep.

He mad a quick landing and grabbed their keycards. He ran back around to me when the blaring alarms went off. He looked towards the door and then back at me. He looked back at the door then back at me. He seemed to be a little conflicted. Either he could have a better chance of getting out, or he could take the less logical decision and try bringing me out as well.

I knew his decision when he slipped the keycard into the scanner and left me. Before he left, he put on one of the whitecoat's clothes and the ID. He had the same black hair and almost matched the height that the whitecoat was. They both had the same Dark skin and black hair. You could easily see Alexander's protruding ribs as he was slipping on the top that the whitecoats wore.

He glanced back at me and looked like he wanted to say something, but he looked to ashamed. He should be, wearing that whitecoat, leaving his best friend behind. The one who actually cared if he didn't come back or not!

After Alexander abandoned me, that's when I stopped caring if I lived or died. I was still aware, I still hoped. The only difference was I had no friend. From that day on, I counted him dead. He was no longer a human, a friend. He wasn't Alexander in my mind. He was Subject 408KX8L. He was my enemy.

**So how was it? Jazz doesn't know what forgiveness is, so expect some bitterness soon. Leave any comments, questions, or concerns in a review. Have a lovely day!**


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